


I Just Can't Leave You Alone

by rosecake



Category: Star Wars (Marvel Comics), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Aphra (Comics)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-28 22:24:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14459070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosecake/pseuds/rosecake
Summary: Aphra always tells Magna to stay away from her, but then she never seems to stop dropping by.





	I Just Can't Leave You Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spookykingdomstarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/gifts).



Magna used to consider herself a good soldier.  Not anymore, not after the last year had run her through the wringer ( _Aphra_ , after Aphra had run her through the wringer), but she still had that core set of skills that years of intensive training had instilled in her. You don't survive long in the Imperial Navy without a developing an instinct for danger.

She could feel it in the air the second she stepped into her room. Something wrong, something not quite the way she left it -

There was a motion behind her, and she spun around, blaster out, only to nearly take Aphra's head off.

"Bang!" said Aphra, smiling, her finger raised like blaster pointed at Magna. "Too slow, now you're dead."

Irritation and affection both coursed through her, amplified by the adrenaline rush she couldn't flip off like a switch even though she new the danger wasn't real.  Confusion, too, _because what the fuck was Aphra doing here_ , but there was no point in dwelling on it. Nothing about Aphra was ever going to make sense.

Magna took a few seconds to make sure the safety switch on her blaster was on before she threw it Aphra's head.  Proof that she was getting sappy - ordinarily she wouldn't have bothered. "You were almost dead for real, idiot!"

Aphra ducked the thrown blaster easily, laughing, and launched herself at Magna. "If you're going to live the Imperial spy life you're going to need to be a little more careful, aren't you? It wasn't very hard to get in here."

Magna side-stepped Aphra's attempt to embrace her. Her heart was still pounding too hard to just let the home invasion go at that. Aphra sighed and let her momentum carry her over to Magna's couch, collapsing in an unruly heap with an exaggerated sigh. "Fine.  Act like you're not happy to see me."  

"You managed to escape a high security Imperial facility and then the first thing you do is sneak right back into one?" asked Magna.  The lack of any discernible self-preservation instinct inherent in that decision was alarming.  

Aphra shrugged. "It was medium-security at best," she said, and winked at Magna, which shouldn't have been nearly as charming as it was. "Which, thanks! I appreciate it."

"And I suppose you're going tell me the security here isn't that great either, yes?"

"Come on, that can't be a surprise to you."  Aphra was splayed out on the couch like she was in her own apartment, legs angled in a way that Magna was finding it hard to ignore.  She patted the cushion at her side, and Magna was tempted to join her, but she resisted the urge.  She wasn't done being irritated yet.

And the lack of security wasn't a surprise at all. Magna wasn't exactly pulling plum assignments these days, largely due to the woman sitting right in front of her, and the guards at her current base, Eroch-090, weren't the best and brightest the Empire had to offer.  

Magna flexed her hands, cracking the knuckles to soothe her nerves, and sighed again. "Why are you here, Aphra?"

Something slipped in Aphra's demeanor for a moment, and then she was back to smiling, albeit with just a little less swagger.  "You know, when you say it like that, it makes me think you'd rather not have me here," she said. She sounded like she was trying for a joking tone and not quite pulling it off.

"You're the one who told me I should stay away from you," said Magna. "That, and I expected you to be a little less eager to get caught again.  They're not going to keep sending you to the soft joints."

Aphra slid down on the couch, so that she was more lying down than sitting up, and let her eyes close. "I did say that, didn't I? But then I got lonely.  Prison does that to you."  

Magna was lonely, too, even though there was a stubborn and proud part of herself that didn't really want to admit it still, even after everything she'd been through. She was supposed to be an officer, a symbol of strength and Imperial might, enough to make even the last remnants of the Rebellion quake in fear.  

What she actually was, though, was a lonely lovesick idiot who'd fallen head over heels for a fast-talking degenerate with a pretty smile. 

A year ago Magna wouldn't have been caught dead watching that in a romance holo, and now she couldn't stop herself from day-dreaming about it every second she got. She thought about Aphra all the time - before she went to bed, when she woke up, when she should have been concentrating on work. And, really, what had being a good officer ever gotten her? Nothing half as good as Aphra.

"Me too," she said, walking over to join Aphra on the couch. She moved slowly, casually, and she sat on the opposite end of the couch, occupying the one small corner of it that Aphra wasn't already spread out over. She still didn't want to seem _too_ into her. There was no need to embarrass herself. 

About a half-second after she sat down Aphra swung her feet around so that the were in Magna's lap. So much for moving slowly.

"I meant what I said before," said Aphra. Her eyes were closed, and her hair was in her face, and Magna couldn't stop herself from leaning over and brushing it back. "Things never seem to turn out well for the people around me. And it's not hard to see why, since I'm a very selfish person."  She opened her eyes a little bit, just slightly, enough so that she was looking at Magna from underneath her lashes.  "I'm not very good at self-denial."

It wasn't that Manga didn't believe Aphra when she said she was trouble. They hadn't known each other long and Magna already had plenty of scars that were testament to just how much trouble Aphra could be.  

Magna just didn't care. Not when the thought of being undeniable to someone like Chelli Lona Aphra made her blood sing in her veins.

"I don't think I mind," said Magna.

*****

Magna woke up as Aphra was rustling around in the morning, getting her things back together. However rusty she'd gotten, she still wasn't so unobservant that Aphra could just slip away while she slept peacefully and unaware. Still, she didn't move, didn't say anything. If Aphra wanted to disappear again before dawn, well, that was Aphra's business and Magna wasn't going to embarrass herself trying to stop her. Instead, she let herself drift back into sleep, giving up the real Aphra to wallow in dreams of her instead.

When she did properly wake up, she expected to find her apartment completely empty, with no trace of Aphra left behind. Instead, there was a scrap of flimsi on her nightstand. On it was a roughly drawn picture of what was probably supposed to be Aphra waving goodbye, with little hearts drawn around her.

It was the stupidest thing Magna had ever seen, and she couldn't quite bring herself to throw it in the trash where it belonged.

She flipped it over, and on the back Aphra'd scrawled out, "See you soon!"

"I can't wait," said Magna, her voice sounding overly loud in the emptiness of her bedroom.

Maybe next time when Aphra left she'd take Magna with her.


End file.
